Presented by WESTERN SIDING.
Wednesday, January 21, 2015.
One should never take anything for granted, but Boise State is a heavy, heavy favorite tonight against San Jose State in Taco Bell Arena. Former Bronco assistant Dave Wojcik had his work cut out for him anyway when he took over the Spartans, but his team’s struggles have been epic through a series of suspensions, dismissals and injuries. SJSU, which is on its second eight-game losing streak of the season, is averaging just 48.5 points per game and will suit up only eight players tonight—all of them are averging at least 7.7 minutes per game in conference play. Then you get to history. Boise State is 24-2 all-time versus the Spartans and 13-0 at home. The Broncos played San Jose State only once last year in the regular season, winning 76-55 in Boise. Then they routed SJSU in the Mountain West Tournament, 83-52.
Boise State won at New Mexico Sunday without a lot of size. The biggest players on the floor for the Broncos were James Webb III and Nick Duncan, and they were all over the court, combining for nine three-pointers. Kevin Allen did not make the trip to The Pit, a decision made by coach Leon Rice, who indicated it was due to Allen’s practice habits. David Wacker played only eight minutes and went scoreless. That rotation (or lack thereof) probably wouldn’t have worked last year with Alex Kirk and Cameron Bairstow roaming the middle for the Lobos, but that’s beside the point. That rotation may work tonight. But there will come a time in the next couple of weeks when the dynamic will change.
How about this for a distraction? President Barack Obama is scheduled to speak at 2:45 p.m. today at the Caven-Williams Sports Complex, across the parking lot from Taco Bell Arena. Boise State’s shootaround preceding the game is planned for 3 p.m. The Broncos will probably have to juggle that. “I know he’s a basketball fan,” said Rice. “We’ll have to invite him to our shootaround and see if he wants to get some shots up.”
Also in the Mountain West tonight, the big game has New Mexico at UNLV, with both teams needing to bounce back from losses over the weekend. Last night, San Diego State took another step toward returning to the Top 25 with a 77-45 rout of Air Force in Colorado Springs, while Utah State cruised past Nevada, 70-54. The Wolf Pack, the nation’s worst-shooting team from three-point range (out of 351 schools), was 2-for-18 from beyond the arc. Three teams have weekday byes this week: Colorado State, Fresno State and Wyoming.
With Marcus Mariota leaving Oregon for the NFL, Kellen Moore’s most celebrated record is free from a possible threat. Moore became the winningest quarterback in college football history with 50 wins at Boise State from 2008-11. It's a record that was going to be difficult to break. After all, somebody was going to have to start every game from his freshman year on and average more than 12½ wins a season over four seasons to do it. But now that most conferences have championship games, one more opportunity for a win is added. And now there's another for the two teams that make the national championship game. Mariota was 36-5, so reaching the record would not have been impossible. He would have needed 14 wins next season, and the way the Ducks are rolling these days, he would have had a shot.
Tanner Mangum’s name has resurfaced in a story by Dick Harmon in the Deseret News on the extraordinary number of returning LDS missionaries joining or rejoining the BYU football program this year. Among those who have already been “given status” for the 2015 season is Mangum, the former Eagle High quarterback who was a four-star recruit in the 2012 class. According to Harmon, Mangum has been serving at the Chile Antofagasta Mission and returns in June. Magnum was last listed at 6-3, 193 pounds. He was co-MVP of the prestigious Elite Eleven Camp in 2011, sharing the honor with Neal Burcham of Greenbriar, AR, and some guy named Jameis Winston of Hueytown, AL.
Mangum then threw for a school record 3,885 yards and 35 touchdowns as a Mustang senior—then he attended BYU as a freshman. He was not on the Cougars’ roster in 2012, so he theoretically has a redshirt year to use. And star QB Taysom Hill will be returning for his senior year, coming off the fractured leg and ligament damage he suffered in a loss to Utah State in October. So Mangum may not be active when BYU hosts Boise State in Provo September 12.
Speaking of BYU, the school hasn’t commented on any discipline for its players who were involved in the postgame brouhaha against Memphis players at the end of the Miami Beach Bowl, except to say it’ll be “handled internally.” But Memphis has announced it has identified 12 players and will punish them via practice and game suspensions for their roles in the brawl after their victory over the Cougars December 22. BYU and Memphis players also will formally apologize to each other in a conference call.
There’s been no official announcement from Moscow yet, but all signs are pointing to Idaho hiring recently-dismissed Washington State defensive coordinator Mike Breske for the same post with the Vandals. Breske will just have to drive across the border. Idaho has lost three position coaches on the defensive side of the ball since the season ended, but maybe that’s not such a bad thing. Breske, new defensive line coach Kenny Holmes, and new secondaey coach Aric Williams have nowhere to go but up. The Vandals yielded 462.7 yards per game, 112th in the country, and seven yards per play this past season.
It’s another weird edition of the ECHL All-Star Classic tonight in Orlando. The event will feature a team of ECHL All-Stars taking on the host Orlando Solar Bears. For what it’s worth, the Solar Bears are 17-14-3 on the season. This doesn’t seem fair. The only Idaho Steelheads representative on the All-Star squad is goalie Olivier Roy, who has a league-best 20 wins this season to go with a goals-against average of 2.36. The Steelheads return to the ice this weekend for a three-game series in Anchorage against the Alaska Aces.
This Day In Sports…brought to you by ZAMZOW’S…nobody knows like Zamzow’s!
January 21, 1990, 25 years ago today: At the Australian Open, John McEnroe becomes the first player in the Open era to be kicked out of a Grand Slam event for accumulating three behavioral code violations in one match. In his fourth round match against Sweden’s Mikael Pernfors—up two sets to one but trailing in the fourth—McEnroe was given a point penalty for “racquet abuse”, which handed Pernfors the game, a service break, and a 4-2 lead. McEnroe, who had an earlier violation for “lineswoman intimidation”, went ballistic, ranting until he was finally disqualified.
(Tom Scott hosts the Scott Slant segment Sunday nights at 10:30PM on KTVB’s Sunday Sports Extra and anchors five sports segments each weekday on 93.1 The Ticket. He also served as color commentator on KTVB’s telecasts of Boise State football for 14 seasons.)
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